There’s probably dozens of unpleasant ways to describe the mood and attitude of Sprint Cup drivers when they arrive at Talladega Superspeedway.

The one that fits best? Trepidation.

Nearly every Cup driver—especially those in the championship Chase—have a bit of uneasiness, if not downright fear, heading to NASCAR’s wildest and most dangerous track.

And it’s not just the fear of injury that makes them nervous. It’s the fear of calamity—a disastrous multicar accident that could not only destroy their racecar, but wreck their whole season.

The championship typically is not won at Talladega—the winner of the fall race has never gone on to win the championship—but it certainly can be lost there.

“It's definitely a track that has the most possibilities of getting in the wrong spot at the wrong time and having no control of the situation,” Chase driver Kasey Kahne said. “So yeah, it could take out all 12 of us in the Chase or maybe just two of them or however it works. Talladega is that one wild card that nobody really knows (what’s going to happen).”

“(Talladega) can shake things up in a big way,” Clint Bowyer said. “It can propel you to the lead or bury you.”

What to watch

1. Drafting partners

Though NASCAR has gone a long way toward breaking up the dreaded two-car drafts with new restrictor-plate rules, drivers will still pair up in an effort to get to the front at the end of the race.

And in the thick of the Chase, drivers will choose their drafting partners carefully throughout the race. With a championship on the line, most drivers likely will stick to their teammates when it comes to drafting, but there could be some odd pairings among drivers not in the Chase.

As usual, the winner will come down to who chooses the right partner and gets the most help at the end.

2. The last lap, the big move

A year ago, Bowyer used a classic slingshot move to get around teammate Jeff Burton on the final lap.

In May, Brad Keselowski developed on whole new move to win at Talladega. Keselowski took the lead with two laps remaining and then, while being pushed by Kyle Busch, drifted high into the outside lane to break the draft and prevent Busch from making a slingshot move around him.

Keselowski said he doubts that move will work again.

“That was probably a one-time thing, which is good,” he said.

In the last few years, we’ve seen everything from the two-car draft to the slingshot pass. What will be the winning move this time?

3. The Big One

It’s what drivers fear most at Talladega—getting swept into a multicar pileup that can take out a dozen or more cars. Yet it always seems to happen.

Both Talladega races last year featured multiple, multicar crashes, including a pair in each race that collected at least five cars. Then, in May, a nine-car crash took out Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards and others. Another nine-car crash late in the race took out Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and others.

The Big One will not only determine who wins Sunday’s race, but it could have a major impact on the Chase standings.

Who’s Hot ...

Brad Keselowski: Keselowski has not only won two of the three Chase races and leads the Chase standings, but he is on the hottest streak of any driver this season with 12 top-10 finishes in his last 13 races. Included in that streak are three wins and eight top-five finishes.

Clint Bowyer: Bowyer has quietly climbed into championship contention with four straight top 10s and nine in his last 11 races. In his first season with Michael Waltrip Racing, Bowyer has 18 top 10s, matching Keselowski and second only to Jimmie Johnson.

Regan Smith: Smith will run his final race with Furniture Row Racing this weekend before being replaced by Kurt Busch. Smith is being replaced just as the team is starting to turn a corner and run better than it has all season. Smith has finished in the top 20 seven times in his last 10 races, including his only two top-10 finishes of the season.

Who’s Not ...

Matt Kenseth: Kenseth has gotten off to a terrible start in the Chase, capped by last week’s disastrous 35th-place finish at Dover. He has finished 18th, 14th and 35th in the first three Chase races to fall to 12th in the standings, 72 points behind the leaders.

Greg Biffle: Like Kenseth, his teammate, Biffle has had no luck in the Chase, finishing 13th, 18th and 16th in the three playoff races. A pre-Chase favorite, he has fallen to 11th in the standings and trails Keselowski by 51 points.

Trevor Bayne: Remember when he was the darling of NASCAR after winning the 2011 Daytona 500? That seems like a long time ago. Bayne, who returns to the track this weekend, has run just 11 Cup races for Wood Brothers Racing this year. Though he has two top-10 finishes—his only two since his lone Cup victory—his best finish in his last seven starts is 16th at Atlanta.

Favorites

Brad Keselowski: Keselowski not only has two career victories at Talladega, including in the last Cup race there in May, but his average finish of 13.0 is best among active drivers.

Clint Bowyer: Bowyer has won the last two Talladega Chase races and has finished in the top 10 in five straight Talladega races, including first and second last year. He finished sixth there in May.

Matt Kenseth: Kenseth desperately needs a strong finish to keep from being eliminated from championship contention. He could get it at Talladega. No one has been strong on restrictor-plate tracks this year than Kenseth, who won the Daytona 500 and finished third at Talladega in May and third at Daytona in July.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Though he hasn’t won at Talladega since 2004, Earnhardt has five career wins there and has led at least one lap in 23 of the 25 races he has run there. He has 13 top-10 finishes and an average finish of 14.8 at one of his favorite tracks.

By The Numbers

88: The record number of lead changes at Talladega last April, when tandem drafting was prevalent. There were 72 lead changes in the fall race. Those numbers dipped to 34 lead changes in May after NASCAR implemented rules changes to break up the tandem drafts.

Camping World Truck Series

Race: Fred’s 250

Track: Talladega Superspeedway

When: Saturday, 4 p.m. ET

Fast fact: Ty Dillon leads James Buescher by just one point in the standings with five races remaining. Third-place Timothy Peters is 24 points back. … The points leader after the Talladega race has gone on to win the series title in five of the past six seasons. … Turner Motorsports has won seven truck races with three different drivers and is second, one points out of the lead, in the owner standings. … NASCAR Mexico Series champion German Quiroga will drive Kyle Busch’s No. 51 truck at Talladega. … Sprint Cup drivers Aric Almirola will make his second truck start this season in the Wauters Motorsports No. 5 truck. He finished fifth at Atlanta.

Favorites

Todd Bodine: The two-time series champion has just one win this season, but he might get his second at Talladega. He has four career restrictor-plate wins, including two at Talladega. He is driving for Red Horse Racing, which won the season-opening restrictor-plate race at Daytona with rookie driver John King.

Kurt Busch: Busch is driving the No. 18 truck for his brother Kyle, and should be a serious contender. Kyle Busch Motorsports has not won a truck race this year, but should have it’s best shot with the elder Busch behind the wheel.

Turner Motorsports: Miguel Paludo won the pole and led 56 laps before wrecking at Daytona for Turner. Teammate Nelson Piquet Jr., who won last week’s race at Las Vegas, led 15 laps at Daytona before wrecking. The team also has James Buescher, who has four wins this year. One, or all, of them will be a factor.